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adam1080

macrumors 6502a
Mar 29, 2012
597
983
auto brightness makes its worse always darker, I like max brightness all the time so I turn it off
Doh... my 15PM had it off. (I always have it off on all phones.) Gotta love that Apple turns it back on even when transferring settings from my old phone.

in my defense, I was on the runway taking off for a flight when I posted that. Got my 16PM late last night and not had much time with it before this trip.

So far no sharp edges, no screen issues and no input lag/miss-reads that people are reporting.

After I broke the Apple internet last year with my photos of the horrendous Image Retention getting millions of views that were not burn-in and were 98% fixed with a software fix, it's nice to be normal again.
 
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UID Macforum 9-22

macrumors newbie
Sep 21, 2024
2
1
Got the iPhone 16 Pro today and the screen is alot less bright than my 15 Pro using the same brightness settings. Auto brightness and reduce white point are both off, top picture iphone 15 is on the left. Bottom picture is from a guy that commented on my reddit thread, he was able to photograph the difference at max brightness the iphone 16 is the one on the left. Is this a bad display or a software glitch?

View attachment 2424595

View attachment 2424658

I am an iPhone user since the first generation having every other year for a few years and in the recent 5 to 7 years new phone every year.

Longtime Apple user. Similar to a few other posts here I observe with my new 16 promax that at minimum brightness, the one nit is clearly dimmer than my 15 promax.

unlike another users post regarding equivalence at 35% brightness, for me, I get approximately the same brightness at around 50% for each device and very nearly identical brightness at 100%. This was done indoors with auto brightness turned off, true tone on and or off for each identically and reducing Whitepoint not enabled


It does seem like they're dimmer throughout a portion of the spectrum but also as another user mentioned the scale or range is different so a lower minimum brightness means the calculation for 25% brighhhtness for total brightness spectrum/range range that goes down to a lower value likely means that the determination of 25% for the 16 pro max results in a lower actual brightness than the 15 promax but relative battery use and things like that it's probable that if you have to turn it up to what is classified as 35 or 50% equal your 15 pro max the battery drain will be the same or less with a more efficient processor etc. etc.

Not sure, but that does seem probable.

Also, like another user posted about the screens getting dimmer sometimes year over year.... there have been years, in fact, I think when I got my 15 promax, it seem notably dimmer than my 14 promax, but as it shipped and was received out of the box the reduced white point was enabled unexpectedly. once I discovered that it was a default setting out of the box and corrected it, they became equivalent

On the other hand, I don't see why the reduction in minimum brightness from 1 nit to whatever may might've been 2 or 4 ( I'm not sure if it was ever published ) will result in such a wild difference in computation of % brightness under 50%.

So a couple of things, anyone can call 1-800-my-apple, select technical support option and ask the famous question of whether that's "expected behavior" and to get an explanation to feel like you have some level of certainty with what's expected......although Apple advisors sometimes give completely incorrect information- my experience over many years despite the hopes or assumption they know everything about their products.... that's not always the case.

to agree with various other posts It seems like if you achieve the same maximum brightness for each device and there's a crossover point below which they begin to diverge at the lower end of the spectrum, you probably have a device that's fine and all you need to do is adjust it to the new determination of whatever percent makes sense relative to your particular brightness preference without any likely degradation of battery life despite the fact that might be displayed as a higher percentage.

Like other users I also tell Siri to adjust my brightness to 1% or 50% or 35% so I'm not using the slider

if across all ranges of the spectrum, it's substantially dimmer, and your settings are all equalized then it seems more likely you have a display that's not achieving the intended brightness. Further, if other users are experiencing a identical max brightness and identical brightness, somewhere closer to the mid range of the spectrum for each of two devices, it's not necessarily a software thing, but more likely a hardware thing because otherwise everyone would achieve a lower brightness across the spectrum but some of us aren't. we might all like for 25% to be the same across the board. It probably will not be in this case.

Open to anyone suggestions or comments on this? It's kind of a consolidation of several other post, putting the one place with the attempt to provide slightly more explanation in a few sentences others have provided. Hope it's helpful. If anyone calls Apple to confirm expected behavior that would be nice to add to the post.
 
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SKeijmel

macrumors member
Jul 27, 2022
65
132
I never pre-order or buy at launch anymore.

Although I assume that many (most?) people received perfect units, in previous years when I did it, my units had hardware defects 100% of the time.

Sometimes they were minor issues (scratched paint, loose port). Sometimes they were major (broken speaker and mic).

I am convinced that their first batches always have more defective units because of unrefined manufacturing process or rushed production.

Hope this is a software issue though.
i bought the 13pm 14pm 15pm and now 16pm launch early production units july 2024 this time all good. all my phones are still good and are still all in the family. none has had a defect or any problems
 

mfrank29

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 2, 2017
223
124
I have a thread on this as well. My 15 pro max is about 200 lux less bright the my 16 pro max. Settings set the same. As far as the brightness slider, I think scale itself is different since these can I down to 1nit so comparing how bright they are at a percentage other than 100 may not be useful. I do think this can be fixed in software.
 

iphoneguy2024

macrumors newbie
Sep 21, 2024
12
14
I have a thread on this as well. My 15 pro max is about 200 lux less bright the my 16 pro max. Settings set the same. As far as the brightness slider, I think scale itself is different since these can I down to 1nit so comparing how bright they are at a percentage other than 100 may not be useful. I do think this can be fixed in software.
Whats the link to your thread?
 
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mfrank29

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 2, 2017
223
124
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iphoneguy2024

macrumors newbie
Sep 21, 2024
12
14

I didn’t take photos but I measured with a lux meter directly on the screen. True Tone off max brightness same white test pattern. It is noticeable side by side but not so much you’d notice if someone handed you one at a time
It just sucks that the brightness is worse when they claimed it was 20% brighter. I got downvoted to hell on my reddit thread by all the die hard fans saying i was making it up that there was no brightness issue.
 

Unnamed1

macrumors member
Oct 4, 2005
66
22
I have just seen the same "dim" issue on my friend's 16 Pro Max too.

We lined up my old 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Pro Max's plus a 13 mini and at brightness 25% they all look vibrant - the 16 Pro max is much dimmer - dull even.

Auto brightness was off on all.

My personal opinion is Apple is just cheaping out on displays (LG instead of Samsung?) and this is the end result. Anecdotal and happy to be wrong, but this is just my gut feeling.
 
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iphoneguy2024

macrumors newbie
Sep 21, 2024
12
14
I have just seen the same "dim" issue on my friend's 16 Pro Max too.

We lined up my old 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Pro Max's plus a 13 mini and at brightness 25% they all look vibrant - the 16 Pro max is much dimmer - dull even.

Auto brightness was off on all.

My personal opinion is Apple is just cheaping out on displays (LG instead of Samsung?) and this is the end result. Anecdotal and happy to be wrong, but this is just my gut feeling.
Since they made the displays dimmer this year, next year they will use the same display as the 15 pro and claim look brighter display.
 

subjonas

macrumors 603
Feb 10, 2014
6,272
6,794
I have just seen the same "dim" issue on my friend's 16 Pro Max too.

We lined up my old 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Pro Max's plus a 13 mini and at brightness 25% they all look vibrant - the 16 Pro max is much dimmer - dull even.

Auto brightness was off on all.

My personal opinion is Apple is just cheaping out on displays (LG instead of Samsung?) and this is the end result. Anecdotal and happy to be wrong, but this is just my gut feeling.
The 16 can go dimmer than previous iPhones so you need to compare at 100% brightness to get an accurate comparison.
 
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labellecabresse

macrumors newbie
May 20, 2018
6
2
Source please ?

I will receive mine tomorow, i will post my luxmeter results compare to my 14pm if you guys are interested.
 

SoYoung

macrumors 68000
Jul 3, 2015
1,549
956
Turn reduce white point on and off again. It fixed the lower brightness for me right away.
 
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SmugMaverick

macrumors 6502a
Aug 31, 2017
911
2,596
UK
Thank god I wasn’t going mad.

Noticed this in bed last night next to my 15 pro, it’s dimmer and I’ve been trying different photos, apps etc but the 16 is just not as bright which is massively disappointing.

Weren’t these meant to have the newest Samsung displays like the Pixel 9? So much for those rumours.
 

ant the ninja

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2012
656
795
I don’t notice mine being any less bright than my 15p during normal use but I can definitely see it’s slightly less bright outside in the direct sun than my 15p for sure.
 

NotApplicable

macrumors 65816
Sep 18, 2019
1,068
2,061
Apparently but I’ve seen no official confirmation of this.

Pixel 9 also hits 3000 nits compared to iPhones 2000 nits and has the highest rated display this year so I don’t see how the iPhone 16 has the same panels.
You do realize that phone manufacturers control these parameters in the final product, right?
 
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WilliamG

macrumors G4
Mar 29, 2008
10,008
3,894
Seattle
I have just seen the same "dim" issue on my friend's 16 Pro Max too.

We lined up my old 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Pro Max's plus a 13 mini and at brightness 25% they all look vibrant - the 16 Pro max is much dimmer - dull even.

Auto brightness was off on all.

My personal opinion is Apple is just cheaping out on displays (LG instead of Samsung?) and this is the end result. Anecdotal and happy to be wrong, but this is just my gut feeling.
There is no issue. 25% is NOT the same between these phones because, as has been stated several times now, minimum brightness is now lower on the 16 Pro series. At max brightness they should be the same. In my case, my 16 Pro Max is slightly brighter than my 15 Pro Max at maximum brightness.
 

SmugMaverick

macrumors 6502a
Aug 31, 2017
911
2,596
UK
You do realize that phone manufacturers control these parameters in the final product, right?
Yeah so that’s what makes this even worse, they have a panel that can handle 3000 nit’s apparently but choose to make it dimmer than the 15 pro.

Either they don’t use the m14 panels and they’re using old ones again like last year or they’re useless.

Edit. Just followed a few people’s advice on here and flipped the switches etc and it seems to have brightened a tad next to my 15 pro so could be a software issue.
 
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NotApplicable

macrumors 65816
Sep 18, 2019
1,068
2,061
Yeah so that’s what makes this even worse, they have a panel that can handle 3000 nit’s apparently but choose to make it dimmer than the 15 pro.

Either they don’t get the m14 panels and they’re using old ones again like last year or they’re useless.
Unsophisticated take. There are many reasons to limit brightness from the absolute extreme.
 
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Fred Zed

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2019
5,888
6,561
Upstate NY . Was FL.
So I compared my 16 pro against probably like 20 units at least across the four 16 models

Mine with auto brightness off at full blast was brighter than every single unit 😱 (they also had auto brightness off)

But mine was also warmer than every single unit. I swear I think the demo software they load makes the screens run cooler

I think maybe I should just hold onto mine. I swear I’ve seen the same in the past with my 12 pro (brighter than almost every one but also warmer than almost every one) I don’t remember with 14 pro max I think I just didn’t scrutinize that much with that one against other units. I suppose I could always try another 256 white , but still hold onto mine in the strong likelihood I guess one worse and with other issues.

The warmth also made the colors of the small dark mode light mode wallpaper icons on display & brightness menu pop more

Text crispness I didn’t really see any difference between any of them or mine lol

On average the 16 pro and pro max were decent amount brighter against their 16 and 16 plus counterparts

Mine definitely CAN look warmer than attached photos but in right lighting mine can also be this bright and crisp
I just went mad and started taking photos of 16PM next to 14PM and then two 16PM next to each other wow. Except for going crazy(ier) I didn’t achieve much except to find out panels are similar. Yet when I compare my old 14PM to the 16PM brightness on full is higher on 14PM but once True Tone and reduce white point - yeah that little nugget is turned off all seem similar. Remember reduce white point was also active on the 14PM both at 25% at the time. Moral of the story all stuff turned off then it’s similar in brightness levels. I need to trade or sell the 14PM asap 😂😂😂
 
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